Trouble-free steps to upgrade mailscanner?

[Julian Field]

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Dan Stromberg wrote:
> On Thu, 11 May 2006 11:39:12 -0500, Alex Neuman van der Hans wrote:
>
>
>   
>>> For example, is there a way to have two versions of mailscanner running on
>>> the host at the same time, so you can test the new one, and cut over later
>>> once you feel confident about the new one by doing something simple, like
>>> changing a symlink and restarting a daemon?
>>>   
>>>       
>> I think somebody mentioned something like this (they were talking about 
>> BSD I think) where someone would:
>>
>> 1. Stop MailScanner
>> 2. Move /wherever/MailScanner to /old/mailscanner
>> 3. Create symlink from /wherever/MailScanner to /old/mailscanner
>> 4. install new MailScanner to /new/mailscanner
>>     
>
> Yes, this sounds like a good way to go.
>
>   
>> Then test everything separately using whatever method you want, and in 
>> the end you just stop MailScanner, change the symlink, and start it again.
>>     
>
> What are some "cover the fundamentals" test methods for MailScanner?  Is
> it just a matter of sending four messages: ham+novirus, spam+novirus,
> ham+virus, spam+virus and making sure they're handled well?
>   
Download the EICAR test virus from www.eicar.org and send it through 
MailScanner a few times to check its reaction. That and a few spam 
messages will check it is basically working for you. I have a huge 
library of test messages that I use for testing various bits of the 
functionality, but unfortunately I can't share these with you for 
privacy reasons, sorry.
> And if I wanted to test it out by just sending something from evolution on
> my office server, would I need to configure a second pair of sendmail's,
> where the -bd one of the second pair was listening on an alternate port
> for a while?
>   
You not only need that but they need to use different queue directories 
as well, and you'll need to configure the secondary queue directories in 
MailScanner as well.

Using a spare machine for testing is rather easier, as you can leave it 
configured as a test system. If you stop the outgoing queue runner 
sendmail and set "Delivery Method = queue" then it won't actually 
deliver the processed messages, so you can examine the files in the 
queue. I always check the queue files than let them be delivered.
>
>> 2. Use the archive feature, albeit temporarily. You can always requeue 
>> e-mail back into the system if it breaks, right?
>>     
>
> I really like this feature.
>   
Glad you find this useful.

- -- 
Julian Field
www.MailScanner.info
Buy the MailScanner book at www.MailScanner.info/store
Professional Support Services at www.MailScanner.biz
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